A pair of Ottawa City Councillors voted against the 2017-18 budget directions, over concerns surrounding Mayor Jim Watson's promise to cap property tax increases at two per cent a year.
Kitchissippi Ward Councillor Jeff Leiper and Somerset Ward Councillor Catherine McKenney both say they have concerns about Council's ability to be flexible in the face of change, if they're held to a two per cent cap.
Speaking on Ottawa Now, Leiper says he wants to know if Council is 'locked-in.'
"Over the course of a four-year term, one might expect the priorities in the city are going to change, that new needs come up," Leiper says. "Are we locked in for the next four years to deal with those new needs and concerns within a two per cent cap, or do we have the flexibility to have a slightly higher tax increase if we need it?"
Leiper says Rideau-Rockcliffe Councillor Tobi Nussbaum has put in a request to City Solicitor Rick O'Connor to find out if the two per cent cap is binding.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Rick O'Connor," Leiper says. "I know that he's going to put an unbiased, very professional opinion in front of us. This will be the first time we've formally asked. If we have reason to believe the answer that comes back is still not quite right, there is the possibility to go outside and seek a legal opinion as well, and that's something that I would not hesitate to pursue."
Mayor Jim Watson has held Council to the cap, saying that any spending added to the budget must be met with an equal amount of savings elsewhere.
Leiper admits the cap creates a more disciplined Council, but he believes Council also needs to be flexible.
"What I am pushing back at, and what Councillor McKenney is pushing back at, is the notion that we have to work within the existing budget framework of two per cent," Leiper says. "We do need, sometimes, more flexibility in order to serve our residents well."
McKenney agrees Councillors need to be good fiscal managers but also feels flexibility would help Council better serve Ottawa's most vulnerable residents, and that's why she voted against the budget direction.
"I did it this year simply because I wasn't getting a clear answer," McKenney says. "In the past I've asked, when we get to Committee of the Whole, do we have the authority to make decisions, and vote around the table, and at that time can we add to the envelope? Can we add on more, can we increase or decrease the tax rate? I did not get a clear answer."
"I've always felt that we are budgeting backwards," McKenney says. "We're starting with a number, fitting everything into it and if we don't meet all the needs we need to, things get left out. I think that discussion should happen around a Council table."
Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans says the issue comes down to a difference in interpretation.
"Back in 2014, the Mayor asked Council to agree, for the term of Council, to build the budget on two per cent," Deans says. "Council unanimously agreed to that. But my understanding of building a budget is you have to have a starting point every year. The Mayor had campaigned on two per cent, and out of respect for the Mayor and his office we agreed to build the budget based on an expectation there would be a two per cent tax increase, but we're clearly not bound to that."
Deans says the Mayor's interpretation is that Council's hands are tied at two per cent, but she says City Treasurer Marian Simulik disagrees.
"We asked the City Treasurer that question and she said, 'no, you can make the pie bigger,'" Deans says. "Unfortunately, there is a huge gulf in our interpretation of what we were doing, but it's clear the Treasurer believes Council has the flexibility in Committee of the Whole to make changes to the budget. None of us want to be hamstrung in our responsibility to our taxpayers to make the best budget decisions we can make. Obviously all of us want to keep taxes as low as possible, but the other part of the promise is always about not eroding our services. What I heard at my budget meeting last week is that people are very, very concerned about the erosion of services that their tax dollars are buying."
Deans says they can't set a tax target until Council has seen the budget, but she feels, based on the statement by the Treasurer, that Council rightly has the flexibility she and others are looking for.